William Trickett Smith II

[2] Gómez Menéndez was reported missing and was found in a suitcase that washed up on a beach near the capital city of Lima the day after the 2007 Peru earthquake.

[5][6] In 2000, the younger Smith was sentenced to two to four years imprisonment for drug trafficking stemming from an arrest with two other men in a vehicle that contained cocaine and marijuana that had been packaged for sale, along with cash and handguns.

[1] On August 16, the day after the 2007 Peru earthquake, the dismembered[11] body of Gómez Menéndez was discovered by fishermen in a large blue suitcase that washed up on a beach at the Barranco District of Lima.

[12] Police believe that the suitcase, which was found attached to thick green cords, had been kept submerged by a weight and broke free by the force of the quake; the epicenter was located in the ocean 150 kilometers (93 mi) south of Lima.

[10] Patricia Menéndez identified her daughter's partially decomposed remains by a butterfly tattoo on the back of the neck and vowed to seek justice.

[1][8][10] We feel destroyed, confused.San Remo Hotel employees told investigators that Smith was seen leaving the premises with a suitcase that matched the description of the one in which the body of Gómez Menéndez was found.

In other emails, Smith offered to pay double to rent the boat anonymously at night and asked about how the police handled missing person reports in Peru.

Muñoz told police that on July 8, days after Gómez Menéndez was last seen by her family, Smith asked her to join him on a 7 p.m. boat ride from the Chorrillos District of Lima.

[2][9] A search warrant of a home in Paxtang, where Smith lived with his father, found various belongings from Gómez Menéndez, including cut and torn clothing, sneakers containing sand, and her photo identification.

The documents also alleged that Smith had Muñoz pose as his wife in July 2007 to cancel Gómez Menéndez's mobile phone service through Nextel Communications.

[1] In April 2008, the parents of Gómez Menéndez identified their daughter's belongings, which also included a leather handbag, that had been retrieved from Smith's home and transferred by U.S. authorities to a police station in Lima.

[10] In November 2008, Peruvian president Alan García Pérez signed the documents seeking the transfer of Smith from United States custody.

In October 2011 both the boat captain Justo Solano and the alleged accomplice Mónica Muñoz Pereda were found innocent in a Peruvian courtroom.